Living Room Collaboration & a Stenciled Crate Accent

Friends, as you know, I have loved working with Plaid this year as one of ten Plaid Creators! Over the past 10 months, I’ve had opportunities to show you some amazing products and how to create all kinds of fun home decor projects, like succulent planters, stenciled chargers, and an upcycled bar stool. This month, though, the Plaid Creators tackled our biggest challenge yet, a collaboration to create an entire DIY Living Room!

Back in April, when we flew in to Atlanta from all over the country to tour Plaid Headquarters, we had a brainstorming session where we chose a color palette, some specific paints and products, and an overall feel for the room we wanted to create. Each of us chose what piece of the room we wanted to create, as well as what piece{s} we would contribute for a statement gallery wall. Honestly, we were a bit nervous about how it would all come together, considering the fact that each of us has our own unique sense of style and that we were located so far apart! Each of us created our pieces individually back in October and shipped them to Plaid. From there, Erin from ErinSpain.com and the Plaid team assembled the room on location at Erin’s home.

My assignment was to create a small decor piece to go on top of Erin’s gorgeous card catalog.

I decided to create this small stenciled crate that would feature neutral colors with just a pop of green, as well as the Bohemian stencil we chose to tie things together. Here’s how I made it…

Decorating Your Crate

Just one coat will do the trick! You’ll get a nice dark stained look, as shown below. Let it dry before moving on to the next step.

Step 2: Apply a coat of Barnwood Wax with a paintbrush.

This will go on really smoothly and look almost like you painted a light beige color over the stain. Don’t worry, it’s about to become magical!

Step 3: Scrape off the excess wax using a plastic card.

A store club card, a gift card, or anything else of a similar material works wonderfully. It does get a little messy, though, so I recommend not using a really valuable card. Look for something like an gift card you’ve already spent!

As you scrape, the wax just sitting on the surface will come off on the card, while the wax that has settled into the natural grain of the wood will remain. This is what gives the gorgeous aged barnwood look.

Step 4: Tape your stencil in place.

This is a big stencil, so the whole image won’t fit, but I chose to feature the center part. I taped it in place where as much of it as possible would show on the end of the crate.

Step 5: Fill in the design with white paint and a stencil brush.

My top tip for a clean stencil design is that less is more! Only put a little bit of paint on your brush, and offload it onto a paper plate or paper towel before placing it on your surface. I like to stencil using a tapping up and down motion to keep the paint from bleeding underneath the cut out spaces.

As soon as you’re finished with the paint, remove your stencil by lifting it straight up off the surface. Let it dry, then flip your crate and do the same thing on the other end.

Once your crate is totally dry, fill it with faux flowers, candles, or any other type of filler you like! I chose some big hydrangea blooms in white and green to go with the color scheme in the room.

I love the way it looks in the completed room, and I’m still amazed by how well all of our projects worked together to create a gorgeous, cohesive whole!

Next week, I’ll be sharing tutorials for how I created my gallery wall pieces. I made two of them and created the printable for a third. Can you guess which ones are mine?

In the meantime, be sure to stop by Plaid’s blog The Plaid Palette to see lots more photos of the room reveal and close-ups of the other beautiful projects made by my fellow Creators. We’re also hosting a giveaway you don’t want to miss! Here’s what the winners will receive:

1st Place: $500 collection of Plaid arts and crafts products, including supplies and tools to create your own DIY room makeover AND the entire finished wall gallery of projects exclusively created by the Plaid Creators

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[…] {myself included} who are fortunate enough to be Plaid Creators worked together to create an entire DIY Living Room! Part of that effort included creating a Gallery Wall full of diverse pieces that work together to […]

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Hi! I’m Amy!

Lover of all things creative. Passionate about Jesus and my family. Married to my best friend, mama to our 9 year old Little Crafter and 10 year old Scout. Author of Hand Lettering for Relaxation & Caligrafia para Relaxar. Addicted to Starbucks.

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